She's Not Yours
by Ember Belli
Summary: Keaton falls obsessed for the welfare of a teenage girl who comes in the ER as a result of a horse accident. The girl spends more time in the hospital than Keaton predicted. Carter and the team try to persuade Keaton that she's not her's.


It had been a very long night at the County. All of the doctors were forced to pull an all nighter. Many cases had came rushing in that night, there wasn't a doctor who wasn't needed for thier certain field of experience. Everywhere in the ER, the doctors scurried about, chit-chatting between cases, fetching paper work, grabbing a cup of coffee to stay awake, and helping each other cure patients.

Dr. Abby Keaton couldn't even start to drink her coffee she had poured herself after treating four children, before Dr. Carter came rushing toward her.

"Keaton, your next case is on it's way," he said hurriedly. "The ambulance is set to arrive any minute."

She cleared her throat. "Lord, Carter, cases are everywhere tonight," she hissed, taking a gulp of her coffee, then, rushing off to fetch some fresh gloves.

Carter though he'd be nice and fetch her patient from the ambulance for her. He hadn't even exited the hospital and the ambulance pulled right up to him. Two drivers quickly exited, then, unloaded a gurney, carrrying a teenage girl.

Carter immediately began to check her apperance. She had a pale complexion, but she was as pale as a bed sheet- a sign of significant blood loss. He could tell just by looking at her that her breathing was stressed. From the gurney, the girl looked at him with puffy eyes. He didn't know exactly what had happened to her, but whatever had happned, it was so painful as to make this teenager cry.

"What happened?" Carter asked quickly.

A driver shrugged. "Don't know. All we know is that she's been brutally crushed by something."

Carter nodded, and quickly began wheeling the girl into the ER. He had to forcibly make his way through the crowd of people piled in the halls, eager to see just what exactly was causing the ER doctors to be so stressed.

"Keaton!" he yelled, as he was wheeling the girl toward a empty spot for a hospital bed.

Carter recieved an odd look from Dr. Abby Lockhart, who was busy giving stiches to a man who had fallen off of a fire escape. "Wheres Keaton?" he asked , stridently.

Lockhart shrugged.

"KEATON!" he gave one last yell. He finally noticed her pushing through the crowd, a pair of new sterile gloves in her hand.

"I'm here," she called.

Carter stepped from her way, allowing her to get to work. "She's been crushed by something, that's all we know."

Keaton quickly began by checking the girls pulse, she wasn't sure if the girl could talk, so she asked Carter about her name.

"Don't know," he said, quickly bounding away to help Dr. Benton treat a woman who had fallen onto a kitchen knife.

Keaton allowed her maternal instincts to take over. She immediatley checked the girls eyes with a small flashlight. "What's your name, sweetie?" she asked.

The girl licked her very dry lips slowly. "Ember," said the girl. "Ember Belli."

To Ember, the young doctor's touch was cold, and she began shivering when the gloved hands began examining her arms. She knew that her arms were bruised, and perhaps even broken. All she knew was that it was agonizing to move them even the slightest bit.

"Well, Ember," said the woman. "I'm doctor Keaton. Can you please tell me what happened to you?" said Keaton, rubbing her thumb over a tender bruise on Ember's arm.

Ember was too afriad to say anything, for she didn't know this woman. But she had been raised to tell the truth, and she indeed did. "He didn't mean to do it..." Ember trailed.

Keaton raised an eyebrow. "Who?" she asked.

Before the girl could answer, Keaton unzipped the girl's hoodie, and slid it away from her chest. Her breathing was shortened. Ember began to tremble as Dr. Keaton began examining her body. She gently applied pressure to Ember's middle, checking for fractures. As she neared the edge of Ember's left side, Ember let out a loud cry.

Keaton touched a hand to Ember's forhead. "It's okay, sweetie, I'm going to help you." With the girl's permission, Keaton peeled back her shirt, revealing her skinny middle. Right on the left side, where the pressure had hurt Ember, very dark bruising was seen. It was clear that three of her ribs were broken, and that Keaton would have to perform surgery to re-set them.

She acted quick, gathered a team of surgeons, and began wheeling Ember down the hall to the OR.

She quickly applied her scrubs, and fetched her tools.

When she entered the OR, her nurses had stripped off Ember's clothing, and she laid in a surgery gown. Keaton also noticed a very deep gash where the leg of her boot had been hiding it.

"What cut you?" Keaton asked the girl calmly.

Ember looked downcast for a moment. "My stirrup must've cut me when I fell."

Keaton looked down on her, her face half-covered with a surgeons mask. "Stirrup? Are you saying a horse did this to you?"

Ember made a twisted face in agony, and did the best she could do to nod. "He rolled right over me." She couldn't hold the tears in. The fact that Gulliver had rolled over her many times in a row friegtened her for her life. It hurt to move, hurt to cry, hurt to breathe. She was so lucky that the truck driver who had spotted her out in the snow was kind enough to call the ambulance.

Keaton looked worried for a moment. "Don't worry, sweetie, I'll get you all patched up. I promise."

A nurse applied an oxegyn mask over her face. At first, Ember held her breath, afraid that whatever the mask was blowing would harm her in some way.

It was obvious to Keaton that the girl had never been in the ER before. She stroked her hair for a moment. "No, no," she cooed softly. "Just take it in slowly."

Ember did what the doctor told her. "That's it...you got it," cooed Keaton.

Soon, Ember's head fell backward, and all she saw was blackness.


End file.
